It is desirable to provide rimless type eyeglasses which are not readily visible, including the temple mountings between the transparent members and the user's ears, in order to achieve a desirable aesthetic effect.
At the same time it is desirable to provide a light-weight unit in order to achieve maximum user comfort.
Heretofore, plastic ophthalmic lenses, rimless mountings and light weight temple mountings have been used in order to attempt to achieve these goals; however, the resultant units are not entirely successful.
It is also desirable to provide a unit which will permit variation in alignment with respect to a user's eyes in order to avoid the necessity for the user to move and hold the transparent members in a desired re-orientation. Thus, conventionally eyeglasses are assembled in a fixed plane in front of a person's eyes so that re-orientation in a different plane is not possible without moving and holding the entire assembly or lifting or lowering the head into awkward positions. The latter is especially uncomfortable with bifocals or trifocals. It is naturally desirable to develop an assembly which permits such variation in alignment by simply moving the transparent members maintaining such re-alignment without the necessity for holding the assembly in position, and accomplishing this while leaving the head of the user in a fixed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,609 by Reese, patented May 13, 1980 provides suspension eyewear made of a pair of ophthalmic lenses or eyepieces attached to a metal centerpiece, such as the type used in rimless eyeglasses known as three-piece-mountings. Two small, flexible suspension lines are attached near the outer edge of each lens at points sufficiently separated to control the plane of the front assembly to the face, and to provide stability. The lines then converge just forward of the crus helicis where they enter a device which permits a controlled, precise adjustment of the length of the lines, individually. An earwire entends from the device, over and behind the ear to below the mastoid. However, the orientation of the eyewear of the '609 patent is fixed with relation to the eyes of the user and variation of the orientation is no simpler than with conventional units. Moreover, the fixed metal centerpiece of the '609 patent renders such re-orientation impractical.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide light-weight, rimless type eyeglasses which are not readily visible.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such eyeglasses which permit variation in alignment with respect to the user's eyes without the eyeglasses automatically returning to one optimal position.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.